This sucker’s almost done, too. Good thing I put all those hooks into FROZEN DREAMS, hey?
“All right,” said Sofie. She didn’t sound happy about it, but why would she? It’s never fun to admit things to the Shamus. “If I have to. It’s Irene. She’s…”
“…a mage from Deseret, and probably a die-hard,” I said. Smith raised an eyebrow at either my response, or else the way Sofie didn’t gasp in surprise at it. “I got the first part right away,” I explained to him, “and the second part right after you joined up and Sofie didn’t pitch a fit. There’s only one reason you’d be down here,” I unhesitatingly lied in self-defense, “and that’s to bail out a mage who got in over her head and needs help. But does the snatch-gang know she’s a die-hard?”
“If Posh Fred is here, he’s at least figured it out,” Smith said with a growl. “Mage-catching’s one of the thing he’s known for, up north. Spells don’t bite on him as hard. Nobody knows why, but they don’t. Probably he followed Miss Irene down. He wouldn’t have told anyone else in the gang, though.”
“Why?” asked Sofie? “Is the other thing he’s known for is being a backstabbing weasel?”
“…Yeah,” said Smith. “Though it’s not what I meant.”